The Crimson Demon
by gallantmon7196
Summary: An AU story of the original, follow Drake son of one of the developers of the game, as he forms a guild and completes the death game of Sword Art Online. Except it is through all 100 floors with a very interesting ending. Cameos from almost everyone. Read and review.
1. Chapter 1

Hello fellow fanfiction readers and writers, this is my first try at a Sword Art Online story so sorry if it's bad. This is going to be VERY AU, there will still be Kirito, Asuna and everyone else, except there will be different events. All reviews are welcome they help me in fixing the story later on. This story won't be updated regularly, just when I can. Link Start!

Disclaimer: I do not own SAO in any way, just this plot and my OC's. Lukin belongs to KingChespin

_Narration_

**_ Messages and typing_**

'Thoughts'

"Normal speech"

Chapter 1: Introduction, and "May the odds be ever in your favor."

_Hello, my name is Drake Hicks I'm 18 years old. And This is my second month of me being awake from that hell game SAO, by Kayaba Akihiko. Most of you are probably wondering, how an American, which I am, could be caught in the SAO incident if the game was only released in Japan, well the answer is kind of simple, you see, my dad is part of the US military and he has been stationed to the military base just outside of Tokyo for as long as I could remember. Because my dad didn't like being so far away from us, we used to live in New York, and my parents had decided that we will be together by moving to Japan. I was 10 when this all happened. So my mother and I moved to Japan during my summer vacation, my mom quit her job and took up one with a company called Argus. My mom, is a very special person, she is a famous developer in the video game world. She has worked with many big name developers to create some of the biggest titles in the world. She used to work for Bethesda Games, in developing The Elder Scrolls 10, she had also worked with 343 industries and Ubisoft and helped developed some of their games. Anyways, she was always able to snag me a copy or two of the game early for me. She is awesome like that. Anyways when we moved to Tokyo we had barely been there for 2 weeks when a man from Argus industries knocked on our door and offered my mom a job as second in command for development of a new game called Sword Art Online. She immediately took up the offer and started working for them the next week. Having a parent working on the game did have it's perks, I got to come to the development offices often and help with testing out the new NerveGear hardware and even helped build a few areas and also created the useful info broker. So after about 4 1/2 grueling years of development, Argus finally decided to release a small closed beta test for 1000 lucky people. And with my mom being a top developer, I got one of the beta copies. That was probably one of the best month's of my life. To see the final result of the world put completely together. After the beta ended I waited excitedly for the official online release. My story picks up here right before I say the two words that changed my life, forever._

###Room, 12:30 pm, November 6, 2022, 3rd person###

Drake sat at his computer, watching the live feed of a newscaster standing in front of a packed video game store where people were swarming to buy SAO. The footage was being watched worldwide. Drake smirked to himself at seeing the chaos.

'Guess some people just don't have the connections that I do.'

Turning the screen off, Drake stood up and sighed, his father was out of the house at the base doing whatever he does, and his mother was at Argus getting plugged in for the release party. He had the house to himself so that he could play undisturbed. Getting the NerveGear headset out of the box that he stored it in he hooked it up to his NovaWare 2900 PC and slipped the disk in. Setting the helmet on his head and lying down on the bed, Drake spoke the two words that changed his and 10,000 other people's lives, forever.

"LINK START!"

A rush of color and sound started flying towards Drake making him instinctively close his eyes. When his eyes reopened he saw a box and with a cursor in front of him. After looking at it in confusion for a few seconds he remembered that this was his login code, it was given to every beta tester so that they keep their original character. Drake looked at his original avatar, he had designed it to resemble him as closely as possible. The avatar had his crimson red eye and his thick short length brown hair. The avatar even had a similar body build to him, being rather skinny but still pretty strong. Drake activated the keyboard control and typed in his password, _**BeTa666**_. Smiling at the Beta code he was given he watched as everything turned black for a moment. Then suddenly a rush of colors, sounds, and smells came at him like a storm and then he found himself, along with about 10,000 other players in the Town of Beginning. Drake looked around the square where he was, familiarizing himself with where he was again. He heard a beeping noise in front of him and saw that he had received a message, Smirking he left the square and city and headed out into the fields to level up off of boars and low level creatures and monsters.

###5 hours later###

The boar squealed in pain until it shattered into thousands of multi colored polygons. Drake breathed a sigh of relief, he was now level 5 after his grinding session. He was helping a few other players, who seemed new to the MMO experience, they were about level 3. Drake sheathed his one-handed war axe, which he had bought from a weapons peddler, and stared at the sunset.

'What a day, already level 3 and I have only been playing for about 5 hours. The detail here is amazing, everything looks so real. I wish I could just forget my regular life and just live here.'

Drake continued fantasizing about living in the game, laughing at himself for such a silly idea, and started thinking about his weapon. His weapon was a basic steel war-axe class, one-handed, meant to hack at opponents

Drake continued looking at his axe completely oblivious that a pillar of bright light was surrounding him. He was taken back to reality by the roar of confusion that surrounded him. He looked up to see, to his surprise, that he was in the center area of the Town of Beginning. Looking around in confusion, he began to wonder how he got here.

'I didn't use a teleport crystal, I don't even have on, and the only person who could have brought all of these people here at relatively the same time would have to be a GM (Game Moderator). But why?'

The teen gamer's question was answered when the sky turned an eerie crimson and "WARNING! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT!" signs started appearing, confusing everyone. But the real surprise was when the sky started to bleed and formed a giant cloaked figure.

"Welcome gamers to my world. I and Kayaba Akahito, creator of Sword Art Online. As many of you may have noticed, the logout button is missing."

Drake quickly pulled up his menu, and sure enough where the logout button should be was nothing. Just an empty space.

"This is not a system error, players. But a unique feature to the game. There are only two ways now that you can use to exit the game. Completing it by defeating all 100 floor bosses, or by death, but be warned when you die in this game, there are no respawns, your avatar will be lost forever and your NerveGear will use microwave radiation to destroy your brain. I have given each of you a present, it is in your inventory, under special items."

Drake, along with the other 10,000 players, all silently pulled up their menus and saw that they all got notices that they have received a special item. Simultaneously pulling it up it read, "Mirror". Everyone cautiously pulled out their separate mirror, suddenly everyone started to glow surprising Drake and everyone else. When the glowing died down everyone looked around in confusion, everyone was different. Suddenly it his Drake, these new avatars were what everyone looked like in real life. Kayaba took a moment before continuing so that the shouts of confusion died down.

"This world is now your lives, you will live in this world and try to complete it. Good luck. And may the odds be ever in your favor."

With that said Kayaba vanished in a burst of darkness. Leaving a panicked grouping of players. Drake, knowing that it was soon going to get ugly ran out of the square and into one of the back alleys of the city. With only one thing going through his mind.

'Mom, I hope that you're not plugged into this mess.'

###December 17, 2022, 8:30 pm, fields surrounding Verona, Floor 1###

Drake was walking along the fields outside of Verona, the largest city on the first floor. Attacking boars and wolves that challenged him. He was currently level 9, probably one of the highest leveled players at this point. He was dressed in reinforced leather armor with steel plates on his left forearm and shoulder. He was wielding his axe that he got at the start of this hell. Walking along the path after a long day of quests and helping other players. He was able to gain a level and get a few rare drops, nothing of worth to him though. As he was walking he began thinking about this past month.

'It's already been one month and no one has been able to find the first boss room. In the beta it took us just a few days to find it, I guess Kayaba changed to location to make this harder for us. But where's mom?'

For the past month Drake has been looking for his mother, who she knew was here, somewhere in the game. He had been asking around using her description for a lead and so far everyone he has talked to haven't seen her yet. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a shout for help.

"SOMEONE, HELP ME!"

Drake bolted farther down the path towards the direction of the call. After a few moments of running he came to a clearing and saw a one sided fight taking place. A figure around the age of 16 was fighting a pack of 8 wolves and losing. The other player was wielding a two handed broadsword that was about as long as he was tall and was swinging it in an arch, trying to keep the wolves at bay. Unfortunately he was about to fail miserably, one of the wolves was circling around to his back and was getting ready to pounce on the poor player. Without thinking, Drake ran down the hill towards the clearing with his axe pulled out. Jumping high into the air he landed on the wolf's back, causing it to yelp in surprise. Drake raised his axe and started hacking at the animal. With a cry, the wolf shattered into polygons and Drake stood up looked at the person, noticing that both the other player and the wolves were staring at him with looks of shock at how he savagely disposed of the animal.

"Need some help, uh..."

"Lukin, and yes please."

Drake and Lukin then turned to the remaining wolves, ready for battle. The wolves, seeing that they were outmatched turned and left, scampering into the brush. The player then sighed out of exhaustion and turned to Drake, smiling.

"Hey man, thanks. Those wolves attacked me while I was heading back to the city, I tried to outrun them but they cut me off. What's your name by the way?"

Drake got his first good look at the other player, he has short dirty blonde hair that was spiked up, fairly pale skin and had happy blue eyes. He stood about 4 inches shorter than Drake at 5'9" and had an almost wild grin on his face. His armor was something that shocked Drake, he was still in the starting armor or maybe a reinforced version, either way it didn't have the best of protection.

"Names Drake. Where's your armor, it's pretty gutsy to be out here alone without protective armor on?"

Lukin blushed deeply at the question. He quickly gave his answer while gesturing to his sword.

"Well, I used most of my money on buying this sword, I didn't have enough for the armor so I've slowly been gaining back the money to buy the set, I should have enough in about a week."

Sighing, Drake pulled up his menu, much to Lukin's confusion, and went to his inventory. Selecting a few items and pressing the "Send" icon, a box popped up in front of Lukin. Pressing the acceptance icon he marveled at what was given to him. Looking up at Drake in surprise.

"Drake, I...I can't accept this. It must be worth about 200 col as a set, and I almost have the money anyways."

Drake smiled for the first time since this hell started, at the other player trying to politely decline the items. Holding up his hand for the teen to stop.

"It's ok, I only created the armor to improve my blacksmithing skill. I was going to sell for a low price of 100 col anyways, but I see that it will be of more use with you. So keep it."

Lukin nodded and went to equip the armor. A flash of blue and white momentarily surrounded him as the armor started to assemble itself out of thin air. When the light cleared Lukin now was wearing a leather chest plate over his green sweater and leather gauntlets and leather padding over his brown hiking slacks going down to his equally brown hiking boots. Smiling Drake continued.

"There, now you look like you can take on any opponent for the next two floors."

Lukin smiled brightly at the compliment and hastily pulled up his own menu, after a moment of Drake watching him scroll through it a message box popped up in front of Drake himself. Leaning in he read it.

_**Lukin has requested for (Drake) to party up with him. And for you to be added as friends. Do you accept?**_

Drake looked up at the smiling Lukin and made his decision. Smiling himself he pressed, "Accept."

###End of Chapter###

Okay readers, here is my first chapter for my story, all reviews are welcome and I will try to update this when I can. See you next time.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello readers of the fanfiction world and welcome to my second installment of The Crimson Demon. Todays chapter will be the boss battle and the rise of the beaters, don't worry the events from the anime won't be too much different, just subtle things. Also I must apologize if the dates on some events are inaccurate, I might have accidentally misread something while watching the show. And finally, readers, I'm a little annoyed, 35 views for this story and two favorites, but not a single review, I really want to know what you guys think, and if you don't want t o review at least follow the story. Link Start!

_Narration_

**_Messages and typing_**

'Thoughts'

"Basic Speech"

Chapter 2: The first floor boss fight and the reveal

###December 2, 2022, Verona, 12:30 pm, 1st floor###

Drake and Lukin are walking through the streets of Verona, the city closest to the first floor boss dungeon. The city is much like its real world counterpart, Italian in nature, from how the buildings look to its sounds and smells. Various pastas from Italy were being cooks by the NPC's at the moment, sizzling olive oil, with garlic and butter. Drake and Lukin felt like they had died and gone to food heaven. But food wasn't their concern at the moment, there was a meeting going on in town about the first floor boss, whose location had evaded everyone, even Drakes, and he had practically constructed the dungeon himself along with his mom. Drake's face saddened slightly at the thought of his mother, whom he had been unable to find for the past month. Lukin was talking about the boss at a near endless rate. Drake just groaned. A few nights ago he had accidentally let it slip that his mother was one of the games developers while they were talking about their old lives.

"So what kind of armor does it have? No, wait better yet, what are it's weapons?"

Drake couldn't help but smile, his new found friend was a hard person to be mad at, still always joking around and making this hell game a little more bearable. He was also surprised by Lukins reaction to him admitting that his mother was a developer and he had been beta testing for the past few year. At first he thought that he was about to lose his first and possibly only friend in the game, but instead he just shrugged it off and continued on with their current conversation.

"Well, if my memory is correct, his name is Illfang the Kolob lord, he is a giant red bipedal pig demon thing. His weapons are..."

Drake gave Lukin the most accurate description that he could for Illfang, including what his battle tactic were.

###1 hour later###

Drake and Lukin were sitting in the middle of the top row of one of Verona's amphitheaters where a meeting concerning Illfang was taking place. A man with long blue hair and dressed in beginner knight armor who had introduced himself as Diabel was discussing of how his party had found the bosses room in the dungeon. Everyone continued listening intently as Diabel began discussing what the strategie. Just as he was explaining that we will be split into multiple groups to effectively defeat the boss another player, with cactus shaped hair came sprinting into the amphitheater, shouting in a gruff voice.

"Just a second."

Everyone turned to see said player standing on the top row about 10 feet to mine and Lukins left. He jumped down next to Diabel going over four of five seats at a time. Most of the other played 'oohed' and 'aahed' at his stunt. He stumbled a little on his final landing before righting himself up and addressing Diabel.

"My names Kibaou."

Everyone began paying attention to Kibaou as he began his speech. Drake could already tell that it was going to be about the beta testers and about blaming them for not helping the newbies surrounding him. He started taking an immediate disliking to Kibaou, but he and Lukin decided to stay to see if these other players would agree with the arrogant player.

"I wanna say something before we take on the boss. Some of you here need to apologize, to the two thousand who have died so far!"

Pointing a finger at the crowd, everyone started murmuring in confusion. Diabel, with a look of slight confusion on his face addressed the rather annoying player.

"Kibaou-san, are you referring to the beta testers?"

The cactus headed gamer turned the knight with fire burning in his eyes, and not a good one.

"Of course I am! On the day this stupid game started, the beta guys ditched us beginners, and they all disappeared. They took all the good hunting spots and easy quests for themselves, so only they could get stronger. And then, they just ignored the rest of us."

Grunting in anger, he turned back to crowd of players, shouting, with his fist raised.

"I'm sure someone here was in the beta! They should get on their knees and apologize, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded. Otherwise, we can't trust them to protect us as party members, and they shouldn't trust us!"

Growling in anger, Drake stood up, much to the confusion of Lukin and leapt down to the stage, grabbing everyone's attention. Turing their eyes to him, they saw a player, stand up in pretty good armor for this floor turn himself towards Kibaou, who flinched under the gaze of his blood red crimson eyes.

"Kibaou, I'm sick of you blaming players who were beta testers for the deaths of the unlucky two thousand players. Most of those two thousand were greedy players that thought they were hot shots that could easily defeat any wild animal or monster that stood in your way. They thought that this was still just a game, and that nothing bad would happen if they died, of this two thousand that died, remember that around three hundred was during the first day from outside forces, and of the other 1700, maybe 100 of them were beta testers. So we're just as vulnerable as everyone else."

As soon as that last sentence left his lips he realized how much he screwed up, he waited for the other players to put two and two together to figure out that he was a beta tester himself. Slowly, one by one the other player's faces took on a look of realization. Drake mentally berated himself for not wisely choosing his words more carefully.

'Shit.'

"You beta tester scum!"

Drake frantically sidestepped as Kibaou charged at him with his sword raised high. Drake looked at the attacking player and saw a look of pure hatred directed at him. Drake continued to skillfully dodge the enraged sword swipes.

"Why are are you attacking me Kibaou? What did I ever do to you?"

"You, like the other beta testers left us behind, and now, I'm going to kill you."

Drake continued dodging left, right and ducking down. All the while thinking of what to do the stop this conflict.

'Well, he seems like he won't listen to reason, so I guess I'll just have to land him on his ass.'

Acting quickly, Drake pulled up his quick select menu, and equipped his special weapon. The small object formed in his hand. It had a wooden handle, with a crescent piece of steel at around the end, it was modeled after a weapon used by the Native Americans, it was a tomahawk. With everyone witnessing the weapon forming and was perplexed by it, he rushed at the temporarily stunned Kibaou, sliding down he hooked one of the boot straps with the tomahawks points and pulled the players feet out from under him. The unofficial battle ended with a scowling Kibaou lying on the ground and Drake standing over him with his boot holding down the player.

"You, beta tester scum, you cheated. That weapon you used has to be a hack, or part of a rare quest."

Drake smirked at the accusation, before hardening his expression and growled his response.

"Just to let you know, I haven't started a single quest since this hell started, and this weapon here, it's called a tomahawk, and I made it. My smithing skill is at 20% completion so it was just me having to assemble the right materials. But you don't seem like the person with that kind of patience, so have a free one."

Drake dropped the tomahawk next to the growling Kibaou and started walking away. Lukin, taking the hint, jumped down and walked alongside his friend.

"Just to let you know Kibaou, a tomahawk has a special function that allows it to be one of the few weapons that are throwable in the game, so keep it."

Kibaou, still angered by Drake scrambled to his feet, gripping the tomahawk he shouted his response.

"Well I don't want your stupid weapon, you filthy beta."

He chucked the weapon at the crimson eyed player, it twirling in the air as it was designed to do. Drake, whirled around to face it, catching it with one hand, causing everyone to gasp, and through it back at its sender. Except this trow was much faster and more precise than the way Kibaou lobbed it. With blinding speed, the tomahawk impaled itself into the player's shoulder and sent him back onto the ground.

"I said keep it, you should be more grateful to people you give you a gift."

Drake and Lukin walked out of the amphitheater, leaving a stunned group of player and a fuming Kibaou as he tried to pull the embedded weapon from his shoulder. Everyone gazed as the cursor, identifying Drake as a player turned from green to orange.

###1 week later###

Drake and Lukin were walking with a group of players heading towards the first floor boss room. It had been 1 week since the meeting in Verona held by Diabel and now everyone was heading as a small army to the dungeon. He found out about the movement by a large player by the name, Agil, who had seeked him out to tell him the information and congratulate him on putting Kibaou in his place. Kibaou was leading the group along with Diabel, but was continuously shooting hateful looks at Drake and Lukin. Drake merely shook it off and continued listening to Lukin's jokes, that actually were pretty funny. Drake smiled, Lukin was his closest friend in this game to him was the sunshine in a thunderstorm, always being able to see the best of any situation, and he actually thinks that this whole hellish experience is pretty cool. Drake had a feeling that this boss battle was going to go really smoothly.

###2 hours later###

Drake has never felt so wrong in his entire life, sure they defeated Illfang but Diabel got killed in the process. A player, one recognized from the beta, Kirito was kneeling down in front of the **_"Congratulations. The boss has been defeated."_** message, with a window showing his experience and items gained. Drake was standing with Lukin in a crowd with other players who were all celebrating. But something felt off to Drake like something big was about to happen. And it did, in the form of the obnoxious beta tester hater, Kibaou.

"Why?..."

Everyone turned to face Kibaou, as he sat surrounded by four or five of his comrades, confused by his question.

"Why did you let Diabel die?"

Drake saw that Kirito was also confused by this odd question. Drake hadn't let Diabel die, the blue haired knight had refused Kirito's offer for a healing potion.

"Let him die?"

Kibaou seemed to be on the verge of tears at this point.

"Of course! You knew the technique the boss used!"

Drake remembered how Kirito had shouted out a warning to Diabel to get back from the bosses surprise attack, an attack pattern he had used in the beta. Everyone continued to be confused but Kibaou continued.

"If you'd told us about that up front, he wouldn't have died!"

The players surrounding Drake and Lukin started murmuring to themselves, when a player about 5 feet to Drakes right decided to point an accusing finger at the black haired player.

"He must be a beta tester too! That's how he knew all of the boss's attack patterns. He knew, but he didn't tells us!"

Another player decided to join in the fray.

"Yeah, neither did that other player from the meeting.

Drake, feeling anger from the crowd, dragged Lukin off to the side where they stood, on the outskirts of the crowd. One Kibaou's cronies called out to the crowd of players, demanding that other beta testers that were with them should come out and show themselves. The players' themselves began to suspiciously look at each other, not trusting whoever was next to them. Agil and Asuna had stepped over to Kibaou and his cronies trying to diffuse the sparking situation.

"Hey, come on..."

Agil was interrupted but someone laughing, everyone turned their confusion, including Drake and Lukin, to Kirito, the owner of the laugh.

"A beta tester? I wish you wouldn't compare me to those newbies."

"W-what?"

"Most of the thousand beta testers were beginners who didn't even know how to level up. With the exception of one other."

Kirito quickly glanced at Drake, their eyes locked speaking a brief almost instantaneous conversation that no one else noticed. Kirito confirmed that he was meaning Drake, and quickly picked up his conversation again without anyone noticing the pause.

"You guys are better than they are. But I'm not like them. The other player and I made it higher than anyone else during the beta test. The reason I knew the boss's skills is because I fought monsters with katana skills on floors far above us. I know a lot more. Way more than anyone else could possibly tell you."

Kibaou was stunned, even more so than when Drake had accidently slipped that he was a beta tester.

"W-what? That's... That's way worse than a beta tester! Your cheating! A cheater!"

Drake listened as the crowd began agreeing with Kibaou, calling Kirito a 'beater'. The crimson eyed player could only grind his teeth in anger. But Kirito only smirked.

"A beater...I like it."

Kirito opened up his menu while continuing to talk.

"That's right...I am a beater. From now on, don't confuse me with the other testers."

Drake watched as Kirito selected an item and a black cloak built itself around the black hair player. Drake immediately recognized the item as 'The cloak of midnight', a pretty rare and powerful set of armor. The crimson eyes player watched as the rest of the scene played out in front of him. After Kirito advanced to the next floor he ran up, in blind rage, to Kibaou and punched him in the jaw, causing the other player to stumble back.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Kibaou."

Drake yanked Kibaou off the floor by his shirt collar and lifted him up so that they could look eye to eye.

"That player had enough valuable information for you guys so that you could all up to the ninth floor with a decent amount of direction, and instead of thanking for his help on your hands and knees you ostracized him, calling him a cheater, a...a beater. But you know what?"

"W-w-what?"

Drake could only smirked at the cowering cactus headed player in his hands.

"I'm the one you should call a beater. I'm the other player who became as strong as Kirito and went as far as him. But I'm not just any beater, I'm the Beater."

Drake let go of Kibaou and let the player drop to the ground again, before heading off, across the room and up the stair to the second floor. As he and Lukin were about mid way up, Kibaou got over his shock and shouted over to Drake.

"WHY?"

"Why what?"

"Why should we refer to you as the Beater?"

Drake smirked to himself at the question.

"Because my mother was one of the people who developed the game, I helped in the construction of over half of the floors here and half of the weapons."

With that said, Drake and Lukin continued on their way and entered the uncharted territory of the second floor.

###End of Chapter###

Wow, what a rush. I really like how I did this chapter, and I hope you all do too. Remember to review everyone, just because you don't review doesn't mean that I don't know if you read it, because I have my ways. Also my chapters won't all coincide with the anime episodes, only a few. So anticipate the next chapter eventually.

IMPORTANT NEWS: Those of you who are readers of The Three corrupt Kings, don't worry, I am only taking a temporary break, the next chapter will probably be out in March, this is just a mid-season break.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, here I am with my newest chapter of The Crimson Demon. I do apologize for the unusually LONG wait but I hit minor writers block. But I got inspired by an amazing event. I assume most of you have heard the news, for those who haven't, Sword Art Online is coming out, in English dub. YEAH!**

**Well, last we left off, Drake announced that his mother was one of the game's developers and that he helped in creation of almost half of the game. Well let's see what happens next.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, that is under Aniplex ownership. Also, Pokemon fan 1991 and DiamondKeys own their respected oc's.**

* * *

Chapter: The Sexy Dangerous ninja

* * *

###March 21, 2023, floor: 22###

Drake signed contently as he gazed at the scene in front of him. He and Lukin were on the 22nd floor, ahead of everyone else, they had been the first to spot the boss room on the 26th floor and they were able to easily defeat it, they continued on without notifying anyone. Drake had been the center of a lot of attention from the other players. Word had spread quickly throughout Anicrad of who he was, this responded in two group of people coming up to him. Most were harsh towards him, coming up to him in the middle of dungeons or outside of Safe-Zones and threaten to kill him if he didn't give them any valuable information. He would normally draw his weapons and beat the shit out of all of them, causing them to flee. The other group would be players who would rush up to him and beg for information about the location of a good weapon of a specific type. He always assisted them but it got really annoying, really fast. Lukin, his first friend since being trapped here was the only one that hadn't bothered him. Lukin was still so happy of who his ally was that he wanted to prove to Drake that he didn't need to rely on him too much. Drake smiled at what his friend had told him, and continued looking out at the scenery before him.

"I love this floor."

"Why's that Drake?"

"Well, when I used to live in the States I had family in the state of Maine on the East Coast, their house was right by the really big lake. So when they needed an idea for this floor, I offered this one. I helped in building it, but I don't know everything, this floor was kept mostly secret from me for reasons that I can only fathom.

Lukin nodded, and the two started walking through the forest.

* * *

###June 24, 2023, floor 33###

Drake walked along the bustling streets of the desert bazaar alone. He had sent Lukin to the front lines to aid in the fight and show that their two man guild is still alive and in this. He thought to himself, wondering how Kirito was fairing. Other than Lukin, Kirito was the only other person that he truly trusted in this game, the two of them had partied up and made it as far as they could. He remembered how he had told Kirito who his parents were. The black haired player didn't really react surprised or anything, he just said that it was cool and asked a few things about the development, but nothing about where rare items were. This is what showed Drake that Kirito is a good friend, a player that he can trust. Drake continued walking through the sprawling bazaar enjoying his day.

"Hey did you here? The Assassin striked again."

"You mean the Sexy _Dangerous_ ninja? Yeah I heard that she's one of the few solo players left, it's amazing that she made it this far."

Drake's ears perked up at the conversation that he picked up while walking by.

'So there is a Ninja-class player out there and she sounds pretty strong.'

Drake turned around and walked over to the players who were leaning against the side of a building, Drake guessed that they were good players but not the best. They had on pretty basic armor for how far they have gotten. One was dressed in thick leather armor with a steel breast plate and shoulder pads, he was a tall dark skinned man that seemed very well muscled and had a kind but imposing figure. Drake immediately recognized him as Egil, a player that he has encountered with occasionally since the first floor boss, a well known player merchant, with a knack of occasionally scamming out unwary players from good gear. The other was a player with long red-ish hair held back by a bandanna, he had a five o'clock shadow and a pretty matured face. His armor comprised of what looked like a samurai. Drake also recognized the player, he was Klein, leader of a small guild. He walked up to the two players and greeted them.

"Hey Klein, Egil."

Klein recognized the other player from seeing him around and occasionally assisting his guild.

"Ohh, Drake. Hey, how have you been?"

"Fine, fine. Lukin and I have just been doing what we can?"

"It's still just the two of you?"

"Yeah, there hasn't really been anybody that I've met that seems strong enough. Well, except Kirito, but he is a solo player and wouldn't want to be a part of the guild."

Klein gave Drake a lopsided grin. Even after his identity and how he's related to the game was revealed, Klein, along with a few other people, still treat Drake as just a player, an equal.

"I know what you mean. Kirito is cool and all to hang out with, but he's so serious. You should teach him to have fun once in a while."

"Another time, another time. So, what is this about this so called ninja. What is she called? The Sexy Dangerous Ninja?"

Klein's body instantly became rigid, he started sweating profusely, I instantly knew that he became nervous. Egil, seeing as Klein wasn't about to talk, decided to instead.

"Yeah. She goes under the alias; Anna Knockout. She's been identified as a ninja class player that has been defending lower leveled players from monsters. She's sad to be pretty strong, able to take on three Ogres easily."

"Interesting. Where is she normally found?"

"Well Drake, her location is constantly changing, but recently she has been seen in the lower 20's. What are you planning?"

Drake simply smiled before waving good bye.

* * *

###Next Day, Floor 22###

Drake walked through the dense woods of Floor 22. This was the last known sighting of Anna Knockout, the Sexy Dangerous Ninja. Drake had left the previous night, leaving a note for Lukin, saying that he was on a private quest mission.

'Where oh were could you be you be?'

"Heard you were looking for me!"

Drake whirled around, trying to find the location of the voice. It belonged to a girl, a little high pitched but still sounded like it was from someone about his age. Drake stopped turning around in circles, feeling like an idiot. But he still kept his eyes vigilant, hand ready to defend himself. He was out of the Safe Zone limits, Anna could attack an kill him if she chose to.

"Up here. Idiot."

Drake looked up and immediate blushed. Her pseudo name, the Sexy Dangerous Ninja, was right on the mark. She was wearing a form fitting suit with tough leather knee, and should pads. Samurai style bamboo armor made up her boots and chest armor. He face was covered by a shoujon style helmet with a piece of cloth covering her mouth. Lastly, her forearms were covered with light armor gauntlets. Every part of her armor, with the exception of the of the bamboo, was dark red in color. The color of freshly spilled blood. She wielded two, weak but fast, small katanas and had smoke bombs and throwing daggers attached to her waist. Dangerous was an understatement, she was armed to the teeth. Getting over his shock, Drake answered her.

"Yeah, I'm looking for you. I've been hearing stories about you, and I wanted to see if you are as powerful as the other players say."

"Yeah, I heard you talking to Klein and Egil about me in the bazaar. Well, if you want to see how powerful I am, then there is only one way."

Before Drake could ask what she meant, she leaped off the tree branch she was standing on, and flew straight a him, swords raised.

* * *

###Unknown location###

A man sat behind a large wooden desk, his light brown hair, neatly combed, his face having a regal expression, his large red armor spotless. He was awaiting news from one of his subordinates. Suddenly the messenger he had been awaiting for arrived, bursting through the thick steel doors.

"Sir, we have spotted Drake Hicks."

"Where is he?"

"We spotted his entering the woods on Floor 22 roughly two hours ago."

"Bring him to me. I need to speak with him."

"Yes Commander Heathcliff."

* * *

###End of Chapter###

* * *

**I am being soooo evil. Leaving you guys at a double cliff hanger. Hehehehehehehehehehe. Well the next chapter is sure to be exciting, I promise that there will be combat, something that I have been lacking for the past two chapters. Well I need all of you the await anxiously and tell me what you think in the reviews. Until next time.**


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